Monday, 31 August 2015

On the first day of Spring ( 1st September 2015) Mr A Powell showed us how to make awesome Paper Cranes to create a Hanging Chime for our classroom.

Mr Powell worked with us in our inquiry groups by giving us instructions on how to make paper cranes. First he showed the Tapout Group how to fold the different coloured square papers into a bird called a Crane.

Noema from Cobra's Group went around like a butterfly to other groups to model how to fold the colourful squares into a beautiful Crane.

Avatar's Group were fortunate to have Clyde to help them create their folded Crane. "Wow! Thanks Clyde, you are an awesome helper," said Brandon.

Meanwhile Kingkong's Group struggled along until Daniel and Kaytana worked well as leaders to show them, step by step, how to fold a Crane. "This looks really great!" cried Vake.

Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Dame Whina Cooper was a courageous and talented maori woman who fought for women to have a say on what is going on for the Maori people in NZ.

We found out that Dame Whina Cooper was first christened Joseph when she came into this world lifeless as a new born child. Her father sprinkled holy water on her to baptise her thinking that she was already dead. But guess what?

Immediately the holy water touched her skin she wailed out a loud cry. Then they had realised their big mistake which was, that she was in fact a girl not a boy. What a trickster Whina turned out to be? we all thought.

Dame Whina Cooper was a brave maori woman who was nominated by the maori community to address how maori women were not given equal rights as men to speak on the marae. It was her uncle who had recognised that she was a talented speaker and could also inspire the women to fight for equal rights. She was also a spiritualist who had special healing powers to heal sicknesses and cure diseases among the maori people in her hometown. She also had divine spiritual vision to see into the future. She often saw visions of dead people who had passed away many years ago.

She grew up and married and lived in a quiet place in the bush area. She coached the rugby team of women and that was not a thing usually done at that time in NZ. She spoke about things that had to be done to improve the poor housing conditions of maori people who got sick in their damp houses. She also said that the poor maori people should be allowed to go live in the empty state houses that were already built in the towns.

Here is our brainstorm on Dame Whina Cooper and the things she said and did to fight a courageous battle on behalf of women's rights in a male dominated/ruled country at that time. Way to go Whina Cooper! we all cheered for this brave old woman.

Monday, 17 August 2015

Kate Sheppard fought for equal Voting rights for Women like what men have in NZ

We did inquiry research on Kate Sheppard and found out that she was the first person in the world to start the Fight for equal rights for Women. She also made it possible for All Women to have a say by being free to Vote for whom they would like to run their country. After Kate Sheppard did that, it made it possible for other women all over the world to vote freely.

Guess where you can spot Kate Sheppard's face?

That's right, if you look carefully at a ten dollar note you will be able to see her staring at you-ah ah ah!

Nelson Mandela's Fight for Equal Rights for the Black people in SAWe were wondering how Nelson Mandela fought against the unequal laws that the White Government forced upon their Black people during the time of the apartheid in South Africa. So we google searched Nelson Mandela's fight for equality for his nation. We came up with this information that blew our minds. How can one nation think that they are much better than another nation? "Who do they think they are?" asked Sahil. "That's totally unfair!" cried the girls. Good job Mandela -Viva Mandela. It so happened that the White govt who was running the country at that time made a law to suit themselves which was that people of different skin colour were to be treated in a different way. "There is a name for that -its called discrimination or racism! " said Angele. We found out that while the Whites got the cream of the crop opportunities, to go to expensive schools, buy houses near the splendid beaches and also hold the best white-collared jobs that earned them good salaries to maintain their high standard of living, the poor Black people were treated like underdogs or slaves and they were considered not clever and so got low-paid cleaning jobs in the homes the White people. But Mandela working as a black lawyer took drastic action to end this apartheid and racism act and make it clear to the South African govt that Enough was Enough and that they would no longer tolerate this racist segregation in their own native land. After all South Africa belonged to the native Black people. We were all fired up with strong feelings of 'how unfair' that was.

We also found out in our inquiry that Mandela was an important ANC member who protested against Group Areas Act of racial segregation where people of the same coloured skin were separated and fenced off by either a natural boundary like a river or hill or mountain or by a man- made wall or fence. So Mandela and his followers started blowing up govt building during the night when people were not at work in the buildings. He did that to attract the attention of World leaders throughout the world and make them aware of how the White govt were oppressing them. He was later arrested by police and put in prison on an lonely island, called St Helena Island off the mainland of Cape Province in SA. Mandela stayed in prison for 27 long years but instead of feeling sorry for himself, he used that time in prison to further his study to become an attorney with the help from leaders from overseas/foreign countries.Then in 1994 while De Klerk was in office as the White president, he realised that the apartheid system was actually crippling and harming the country's Foreign Business and Trading as well as the Sporting Industries. Overseas/foreign countries like Europe and NZ had banned or boycotted S Africans from taking part in Business and Trading and world Sports tournaments like rugby. The president was left with no choice but to put an end to the apartheid laws.

However in order to get rid of the racial discrimination laws that was harming the country's economy and business and trade, they were forced to first release Mandela from St Helena Island prison and give him a leading role in the leading and governing of the Black people of South Africa. When asked "What was one of your greatest regrets in the fight for equal rights?" Mandela answered, "I was not there as a Dad for my children- in fact I was more a stranger to my own kids. I was so focused and busy fighting for the freedom of my people, that I missed my calling or role as a Dad and a husband.

"What a moving story of self-sacrifice from Nelson Mandela for equal rights for others." we thought. Good on you-Viva Mandela!

Sunday, 2 August 2015

How do we react in class when we think that we have been unfairly treated?

Avatars-Bryan

I felt as if I was doing all the playing on my ipad while my brother was doing all the housework like a slave.

Tap-out-Francois

I felt that "the girls were not made" when we were given the milk to drink first in class.

Cobras-Bella

Our group brainstormed ideas about how we feel when

we treated unfairly in our classroom.

King kong- Danie

When we get treated badly we feel like we are cats that are locked out of the house.

Here is how we worked in King-kong to share how the boys felt when they were not allowed to use pens during reading time. Shadrach says I felt mad and miserable.

This is what we did in Avatars when we were sharing ideas in our group. "Mr P picked me because I was a boy like him" said Thlua. I felt like we were like kings and the girls were the slaves," says Brandon.

We in Tapout talked about what is fair and what is unfair. We had to give good reasons why we thought that or say that.

Look at our brainstorm of how we reacted when we felt that we were unfairly treated by our teacher or others in our group. In our 'black box' we were thinking "Do we have any rights or what in room 12".